Just making it easy for you to get your indictment together.

The rules for deleting posters are below the "Publish" button.

so I will take your questions seriously regarding Obama and Iraq. Look, I'm no expert but it seems pretty clear that a) Iran has a very high Islamic-extremist quotient; b) Iran is attempting to develop nuclear weapons; c) Iran is a regional power, made significantly more powerful by the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iran; d) Iran has some hard feelings toward the U.S., not to mention Israel; and e) Iran has a lot of oil, sits on the primary oil trading route, and the U.S. is (for the immediate future) addicted to foreign oil.

Now, if you disagree with any of those predicates, I promise to give you a snark-free response, should you wish. But if you don't disagree with any of those five premises, then surely you agree that Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons is a problem for the president of the United States. If that is so, I simply ask you this:

What is the big deal about what Obama said?

Hey, if you fellows are finished with "the left", perhaps you are also done with "liberal". If so, can I have it?

It gets old saying "classic liberal" and then having to explain it. Libertarian is so fashionable these days that it means almost nothing. Hell, even the war-monger boys (a subset, I'll grant) at Reason claim to be libertarians. Conservative is not my cup of tea and paleo-conservatives have too many religious hangups to put up with.

So, I would like to be just "liberal" and not "classic liberal" if everyone else is done with the label now.

Deal?

You think I'm incredibly arrogant, and too doe-eyed to understand that wars on the borders of ancient empires are evidence of transcendental mistrust/antipathy between what have been known for at least a dozen generations as 'the West' and planet Persia, which especially animates the history of the world. Check.

You, on the other hand, through, amongst other things, your profound grasp of commonality between polytheistic religions of the near east and sanskrit linguistics, know far more about the salience of this 3000 year old transcendental conflict. Check.

You're astonished that I had the temerity to cite the breadth of the Mogul empire, and the significant influence of Persian culture on it, as historical allegory to Roman spreading of Greek culture, and think that pointing to the Aryan migration effectively rebuts this point. Check.

Thermopylae and the Greco-Persian Wars are the perfect example of the Greek's demonization of Persia, notwithstanding the Greek sources of these conflicts lionizing of historical Persian figures. Cyrus the Great does not count because his reception doesn't fit the theory, but Xerxes does, and we all know that the Greeks defended their territory and therefore demonized Persians. Check.

The Egyptians unequivocally admired the Persians, which explains their series of revolts against their rule. Even if Egyptian admiration were less than unequivocal, it would have nothing to do with the current rivalry between Iran and its neighbors in the region, or between Sunni and Shia branches of Islam. In both senses the historical record corroborates the uniqueness of the historical antipathy between Persia and the West. Check.

Crusades are just another example of the unique proclivity of the West for religious and culturally inspired/legitimated military expansion. Check.

Did I leave anything out? I humbly apologize for not making the point that the Moguls were the most notable Persian influence on Persian culture, or even that they were a notable influence on Persian culture, thus requiring you to construct the strawman from whole cloth. Very unsportsmanlike of me. I retreat before your expertise. By all means, let's assume that my comment had anything to do with what our policy should be vis a vis Iran despite the fact I explicitly foreswore such an analytical framework.

Oh, I forgot. I do not have wire-rimed glasses and can not throw bombs (nor do I know how to make them), so I guess being an anarchist is out. Oddly, I am not in favor of any government though.

Sorry, but multiple investigations, including by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, have shown that the Bush administration did not massage the intelligence.

The intelligence was wrong, period. Just google "Kerry WMD" "Clinton WMD" "Gore WMD" or any number of other Democrats and you'll see that they were all claiming Saddam had WMD as far back as 1998, all based on the reports from the intel community.

Wake up and get your head out of the sand.

Bad Cops Bush and Cheney tried to push war with Iran (which leads to war w/ Russia, a.k.a. WWIII) on us and failed.

Good Cop Barak is now going to take a crack at it.

The simple facts are that the US and Israel have started so many more wars of aggression than Iran, that calling Iran a threat to regional stability or whatever is just laughable.

If Obama starts hawking the bogey man under the bed, I have to leave.. can't pay another dollar towards invasion and resource war.. no more blood on my hands, thanks.

This is the "big deal" about what PE Obama said:

Iran is going to be one of our biggest challenges and as I said during the campaign we have a situation in which not only is Iran exporting terrorism through Hamas, through Hezbollah but they are pursuing a nuclear weapon that could potentially trigger a nuclear arms race.--Obama

Which is based on...what?

The 2007 National Intelligence Estimate on Iran (pdf), the consensus opinion of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies:

We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program.

" . . . but it seems pretty clear that a) Iran has a very high Islamic-extremist quotient".

You're basing this on your non-expertise, non-visits to Iran, non-knowledge of Iranians, non-linked, non-definitional, non-numeric, non-statistical, and non-thinking but rather just releasing flatus like statements from thine arse I presume?

I for one take exception to all your "predicates" absent factual evidence supporting them. But go ahead and as they say "let it rip".